Day 29 - 30 July - The beautiful Passo Stelvio.

It's rare that I'm emotional after a bike ride but today was quite amazing. Just reaching the summit of this colossus, the Passo Stelvio, was a real journey of the soul as well as a gruelling physical test.

I mean, I've burst into tears of joy at the bottom of Mount Hotham (when Hil greeted me with food in the car after the final stage of the Tour of Bright a couple of years ago) but never simply for reaching the top. Today I couldn't help but give Angelo a hug - this truly is an amazing place to be alive and on a bike.

We climbed from the Prato allo Stelvio side up and over into Switzerland (with our passports ready just in case) and returned back into Italy to complete the loop. 

As you approach the mountain you have a view of it for much of the ride. What looks simply like snow on top is actually a glacier sliding down the hill. There comes a point in the ride where you are close enough to see just how immense the whole thing is - the stalactite-like formations hanging from the glacier dwarf the trees in the valley below. It's truly incredible.

All up it was a shorter day, and I'm sure we were all better after the rest day on Wednesday. 

Unfortunately I feel I'm coming down with a bit of a cold :( but I still gave it my all on the climb and did OK.

Apples! Come to this region if you like apples. Seriously.

We're going up there?

The best of the photos I could take while trying to ride a time trial!

Note the white mercedes - I think the organiser of the event is doing OK.

Over the Northern side and the landscape is windswept and sparse.

In switzerland now.

The bus from Bolzano for those without cars.

So Damian, how was the Stelvio?

Days 27/28 - 28 /29 July - Giro delle Dolomiti Stage 3 and rest day

Tuesday - Stage 3

I don't think I realised how hard this event would be. Don't get me wrong - it's fantastic fun, and really we're just dawdling for much of the time, but 180km on the bike over 9 hours is a LONG time to be riding. 

Today's timed section was 8 or 9km long and nowhere near as steep as yesterday's cruel and unusual punishment. Still, the time trial came after over 100km of riding - so with pretty cooked legs!

I'm afraid I'm too tired to retouch the lens scratches out of the photos but here are the photos, and a couple featuring Yours Truly, courtesy of Angelo.

Crossing the finish line for the second time to get the shot :)

Wednesday - Rest day

Reflecting on Bolzano - it's a funny place. Look up and it's a farm. Look down and it's a stylish small Italian city. Look left and it's Austria - look right and it's Italy. 

I call the town Bolzano but like all the towns around here it has not one, but two names - Bolzano and Bozen. Moreno and Moren. Brennero and Brenner. And so on.

Apparently Mussolini annexed teh Sudtyrol (South Tyrol) region from Austria 60 years ago and there is still a real divide. Many of the people here identify as Austrian and speak German before they speak Italian. It's always fun going into a shop and thanking someone in Italian, to realise they are really a German speaker and you should have said 'Danke' instead of 'Grazie'.

Also, what the hell is with the 'love lock' thing? It's repulsive.

This triumphal arch blares the Italian national anthem regularly to celebrate the annexation of the region (seriously!)

Day 26 - 27 July - Giro delle Dolomiti Stage 2

I'm writing this on the rest day (29 July) because I've been too shagged to do it earlier.

Today was stage 2. 143 km. 2500m of climbing. The timed section was a 6km climb with the last km at over 15% gradient - it broke me, I won't lie. Nothing I've done in the last year has prepared me for hills that steep. Horrible.

But it was beautiful! I'll let the photos do the talking. If Ang and I aren't smiling it's because we're lamenting our saddle sores. ;)

I've also moved out of my AirBNB student shared flat accommodation into a hotel for 3 nights, then another airbnb (only one other person, not a share house) for 3 more nights. 

Best decision ever.

I tried and tried with the house but really it wasn't appropriate for my needs. The first night there was a bar across the street playing loud music and a lot of noise at night. The house was filthy. I had to buy toilet paper for the house as there was none to use. The hot water in the one working shower was so unpredictable that any false move resulted in scalding (!!!) hot jets of death. I also slipped over in the kitchen and bruised my hip when a housemate was mopping up (way too much water and she didn't warn me before starting to mop). On Monday night (before today's 143km ride) I was kept awake by noise in the courtyard behind the house, and then one housemate decided he wanted to cook dinner loudly at 12:30am so I probably slept from 1 until 5... and up out of bed at 6 to get ready for the ride. Not ideal.

I got home after the ride and agonised for an hour but at 9pm I snapped, booked a hotel, packed my things, called my host and left. 

SO all in all the hotel I'm in now is an oasis. Anyway, here are photos from the ride :)

Damian and Angelo

'Tough arms' (to keep warm!)

At the top of the most horrifically steep climb we found this.

Three amigos.

People live here!

Traffic stops for the 600+ peloton.

Day 25 - 26 July - Giro delle Dolomiti Stage 1

Well, it's here! Am I ready? Well, all i can say is that several weeks of climbing hills does not really make up for 10 months in pancake flat Cambridgeshire.

Anyway, it's time to start the Giro! 6 stages over 7 days, 700km, and MANY MANY vertical metres.

At this stage I'm more than a little bit of worried about saddle discomfort (friction) that has come on the heat and the increase in KMs :/ too much information but hey this is my blog and I expect there to be a few cyclists reading this. See how we go.

The massive bunch of 400 people snaked its way out of Bolzano at 7:30 this morning, with rolling road closures (or sheer weight of numbers) forcing pretty much every car we came across to wait for us to pass. It was truly a memorable way to start the week. I expect that as the stages get harder there won't be so much riding around in a massive bunch.

The hill was horrible (see strava link) - I started well but really it was too steep for me coming from too little hill climbing, so my legs ran out of gas. Something a little less severe would be a better test :) see how we go later this week.

There are over 400 people in the peleton.

Angelo crossing the line.

I've got to say, this was a beast of a hill. Not even the longest we'll do this week, but certainly STEEP.

View on the way down.

An even better view - shouldn't have stopped to take the other photo!

Everyone else agreed - let's get this photo and scrap the last one.

Day 24 - 25 July - Bolzano, Italy.

Back in beautiful Italy.

Goodbye 'Le Tour', farewell french speaking strangers and hello to strange Austrian/Italian dialect and excellent English speakers. Also, hello the Dolomites.

This is going to be a big week.

Interesting accommodation... not quite as nice as what I've experienced so far, but fun, friendly and cheap. I'm staying in a room in a massive 4 bedroom student share apartment. I knew it was a student flat but I confess to being a little surprised when I arrived. Not necessarily the ideal place for early nights and early mornings to head out riding... BUT it's ok for the time being. I'll change on Thursday.

There is a great view out my back window, but here are some other features of Bolzano and my accommodation. :)

Great also to meet up with Angelo, the person who got me into Hawthorn Cycling club in the first place, and the person who told me about the Giro delle Dolomiti. I'm really looking forward to sharing some adventures.

Wading pool on the balcony.

It's inhabited!

This little fellow was apparently visiting for a couple of days. I kept looking at the fish pond expecting to see the fish missing (and he certainly was interested!) but no, the fish survives.

Square in Bolzano.

Storm coming. Please bring a cool change!

Days 22-23 - 23-24 July - Chambéry and travel back to Italy

And so after two pretty spectacular weeks my time in France comes to an end. I'm writing this a couple of days late so I have had time for it to sink in. In two weeks to the day I will be back in Cambridge with Hil and looking forward to what's next. 

Between now and then, of course, is a pretty massive week next week  but it will go quickly I'm sure. I'll come to that later. 

Upon my arrival on Wednesday night in Chambéry, a city in the Savoie department of Northern France, I was greeted by the sort of rain storm that makes the news (including obligatory pictures of flash flooding, submerged cars, emergency services vehicles etc). It was comically wet - but I was hungry so ventured out in the rain (bad idea) to get some food. Didn't get any photos of the storm (seriously though, wow) but here are some photos from my explorations around the city on the Thursday. 

Chambéry is the largest town I've stayed in since Bergamo way back on 29 June. There's a lot of history to the town and I was fortunate to be staying right near the ville ancienne (the old city, the main tourist district). It was nice to be a tourist, even in the formidable heat, and speak bad french with strangers for the last day.

I also had a bit of important travel admin to take care of before heading on the TGV back to Italy. Since the fast trains don't accept bikes, I would have to find a cardboard bike box no longer needed by a bike shop and pack it away to get it on board. Easy to say, but it ultimately meant a good 7km of walking around in 34 degree heat to get the box. 

Anyway, I got it, and as you may have gathered, have made it to Italy. Not much to say other than the usual realities of 10 hours spent on or waiting for trains in sweltering heat, this time with too much luggage for me to move effectively by myself (damned bike box!). But I'm in Bolzano now and listening to Pink Floyd being played in the bar across the street. It's a beautiful summer night tonight and I've just eaten excellent sushi (3rd time in 2 days), a Kirin Ichiban beer, and will possibly get gelato. 

Views from the 'Ville Ancienne'

Fountain of the Elephants looking excellent after recent renovations.

Slightly disturbing?

From my epic 3km walk to get the bike box - 'Flunch'. For when you're FHungry?